Life_under_Siege_The_Jews_of_Magdeburg_under_Nazi_Rule.pdf

106
be trusted. 102 From September 1935 until the introduction of the Vierte
Verordnung zum Reichsbürgergesetz on 25 July 1938, the remaining Jewish
physicians would have treated Jewish patients only. Hans Jensen recalled that
until this decree his father, Dr Max Jeruchem, ‘still had enough patients to keep
him going.’ 103 He also recalled that their family of four was having its midday
meal when the radio announcement was made on 25 July 1938 that all Jewish
physicians had lost their right to practise. He recalled his father’s devastation and
how shaken the family was. 104 Not long after the edict the family left Schönebeck;
the doctor, his wife and daughter relocated to Berlin and began making frantic
preparations for departure and were re-united with Hansgünter only after the
pogrom of November 1938. Hansgünter was already in Hamburg studying
medicine at university. As the son of a war veteran he was permitted to do so.
Such was the impact of the edict on Dr Jeruchem’s practice that he simply
abandoned it without securing a sale. 105
The Vierte Verordnung zum Reichsbürgergesetz on 25 July 1938 dissolved the
remaining medical practices of Jewish physicians. The city’s Health Department
had always recorded the monthly changes in personnel of licensed physicians,
dentists and pharmacists for each district in the Magdeburg region. For the month
of September 1938 twenty-four Jewish medical professionals were listed as
having had their licences revoked; in the ‘Remarks’ column each entry read: ‘Jew.
102 Correspondence concerning medical certification for unfitness issued by Jewish
and ‘non-Aryan’ professionals, 19 August 1935 – 13 November 1935, Bestand Rep. C
28 I g, Signatur Nr. 34, LHASA MD, op. cit., p. 381.
103 Personal interview with Hans Jensen (recorded), Sydney, 11 July 1999.
104 Ibid.
105 Ibid.